The Hebrew Month of Nisan 2014 (Part 1)

[The following begins the republishing of a series of posts I made two years ago. I have done some major updating and also installed the correct dates for this year. I originally began studying the Hebrew calendar with reference to Biblical events many years ago and have written several papers and studies concerning them. Though the spring feasts have been fulfilled, it does not mean these dates do not have current significance. I encourage you to continue studying God’s calendar on your own, and see how this time of year might be applied to a new beginning in your own life.]

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According to the lunar-solar Hebrew calendar of modern Rabbinic Judaism, Tuesday, April 1 was the first day of the month of Nisan. Historically, this is a very important month and, coinciding with the season of spring, denotes a new beginning.

Nisan is the first month of the festival, or ecclesiastical year.

It is most often the seventh month of the civil year.

In an intercalary year, when there are thirteen months instead of twelve, such as 2014, it is the eighth month.

The name Nisan is Babylonian, and was named during the 70 year captivity in Babylon in the sixth century BC. In the Old Testament, in the Torah, this month was originally known as Abib (or Aviv) in most Bible versions. The word Abib means, “fresh, young barley ears,” and refers to the time of the year when the barley first becomes ripe.

Each Hebrew month begins and ends with the new moon. But because the official rabbinic calendar is predetermined, technical problems arise. The calendar is not dynamic but fixed to allow for the setting of dates decades or even centuries in advance.

For example, the actual new moon which began the current lunar month took place in the USA on Sunday afternoon, March 30, at 1:45 Central Daylight Time.

However, the official Hebrew calendar did not start the new month of Nisan until Monday, March 31 at sunset. This is in part because Hebrew days always begin at evening, in keeping with the account in Genesis 1:5: “And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” This is also due to the static nature of the Hebrew calendar, in that the month should have actually began a day earlier.

So, technically, Nisan 1 began in the USA on Sunday, March 30 at sunset. You’ll have to check your own lunar cycle wherever you may live in the world to discover when Nisan 1 began in your area.

The following list of dates includes the happenings of this time of year in relation to the days of the ancient calendar of the Hebrews. Since God’s original calendar remains in effect, these days are very important. Each feast day carries prophetic overtones. The spring feasts were all fulfilled two-thousand years ago when Messiah Jesus arrived the first time, and the fall feasts will be fulfilled when He returns at some point in the near future.

To eliminate confusion, the listed dates are according to the official rabbinic calendar.

Regarding the month of Nisan:

Now the LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you.” [Exodus 12:1-2]

There are several significant events in Biblical history that took place on Nisan 1, the above passage of Scripture being one of them. God still pays close attention to His calendar and His timing for personal events in our lives often involves calendar dates. Many of us are feeling a new spiritual beginning of some sort at this time.

What follows is a sampling of important dates to orient us to the beginning of this new season.

Nisan 1 / April 1, 2014 Tuesday (Began at sunset on March 31):

It was on this date that the Mishkan was set up for the first time:

Now in the first month of the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was erected. [Exodus 40:17]

The nation of Israel had left Egypt after the first Passover almost one full year before this event. The people had been in the Sinai since the Exodus from Egypt, and because of their lack of faith, they denied themselves entry into the Promised Land many months before and were destined to wander in the desert a full forty years. In that time the design was revealed, and the elements needed for the tabernacle were built, including the Ark of the Covenant. It was on this date that the tabernacle in the wilderness was set up for the first time in its history.

This is indicative of a new spiritual start and a new beginning. It is indicative of the beginning of a new ministry. Since the Great Awakening in America is on course, though in the early stages, the beginning of a new chapter is undoubtedly taking place now. We are in transition to a greater fulfilling of this process, and individual believers are sensing this in their own lives and walking it out. Many are feeling a strong tug on their hearts to get closer to the Lord, whatever that may involve.

The next section is dedicated to two different eras: (1) The nation of Israel entering into the Promised Land for the first time thirty-nine years after the Mishkan was erected in the Sinai, and (2) The events of Passion Week almost fifteen hundred years later.

The Mishkan had repeatedly been set up for ministry and taken down in various locations as the nation of Israel traveled about the Sinai. At the end of their wanderings, Israel stood at the precipice of destiny. The prophecy was about to be fulfilled. They were now on the threshold of entering the Promised Land forty years after leaving Egypt, and would soon partake of their first Passover in the new land.

Notice the similarity of events when compared to Passion Week, to be discussed in Parts 2 and 3, when our Lord first entered Jerusalem as the officially recognized and honored Messiah. Is there any doubt that God creates new beginnings and fulfills prophecy on a specific timetable according to certain dates?

Nisan 7 / April 7, 2014 Monday (Began at sunset on April 6):

While the nation of Israel was camped on the eastern side of the Jordan, two spies, or scouts, were sent out by Joshua across the Jordan River to Jericho to gather intelligence for the first battle in the conquest for the Promised Land.

Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, “Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, saying, ‘Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you are to cross this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you, to possess it.’” [Joshua 1:10-11]

Then Joshua the son of Nun sent two men as spies secretly from Shittim, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” So they went and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab, and lodged there. [Joshua 2:1] [1]

Exciting!! The Lord has been speaking to me through the Hebrew calendar in these last months. It is “new”…not something I have known about for very long. I have great anticipation. I also love the confirmation that there is in/from the calendar. Praise God!! His ways are beyond our comprehension. Blessings to you in Christ, RJ, as you walk out His will for your life. May all He has planned come to fulfillment in and through you for His glory and pleasure. Amen.

Thank you very much, Natalie! The Lord’s calendar is one more way He communicates with His people. Like any other form of communication He has created, we must pay attention for the method to be successful. We know the odds of the Lord fulfilling all the relevant prophecies 2000 years ago were not just off the charts or astronomical, the odds were in essence impossible to the nth degree, and were in fact impossible of fulfillment if God was not involved.

But God was involved. He did fulfill the prophecies. He defied the so-called odds. And He did it using His calendar. The times were exact and the prophecies were fulfilled to the very second. It was all done with an obvious very, very high intelligence involved, but also a perfect human will that always chose correctly.

Now, since the Lord’s life was perfectly mapped out according to a prior plan, and since He had to use His free will to make the correct choices, the same dynamic applies to His children. This means time is in play, and time definitely matters. Time is a dimension. It is part of the fabric of our lives. His calendar helps us to understand the times and the seasons and order our lives correctly toward the doing of His will.

We must never be bound by His calendar or get religious with it, however. And we cannot simply trust “the fates” without our minds and wills being involved. It takes all of our resources to seek His will with the goal of achieving it, because His will is the best thing that could ever possibly happen to us.

Outside of His will, we are at the whims of the natural world and chance, and mostly the bad choices of humanity and evil spiritual forces, including and probably foremost, false religions. Better to be directed by God than be knocked around by opposing forces with their own evil agendas.

So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

“The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’

“Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” [Acts 17:22-31]